Sunday was a day that will ever be one of the most amazing ones in our lives. Its the day we got to meet Little B. Because I was over a week past my due date, I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, but baby had different plans. I'll explain what's happened this week so far, all leading up to today:
Since Tuesday, I've been having regular contractions every 10 minutes, but they were counter-productive. For some reason, the contractions were pushing the baby away from the "exit sign" and higher up into my belly, which was discovered on Wednesday at my doctor's appointment. Its a condition called SUS, so my doctor was pretty convinced that we'd have to induce productive labor in order to help Little B get out. He was hoping that it would be via low dose medications, but didn't rule out that a C-Section may be neccessary (although we wanted to avoid this due to my previous surgery, which would likely make such a procedure more complicated that we'd all like). At my doctor's request, both Mike & I stayed home from Tuesday on, because he wanted me off my feet and taking it easy, with someone at home in case the contractions started actually progressing correctly. So we waited and tried to relax. We had a bunch of snow this week, so it was like having 3 snow days in a row.
Anyway, Little B seemed ready to launch on Sunday, and got into gear the day before I was scheduled to go in for a Fetal Non-Stress Test. This was good news. I awoke Sunday to an unusual sensation-- one that set everything in motion--we called my doctor to alert him that my water broke and were off to the hospital. We were both amazingly calm-- in fact, we both showered, straighted up the house, and then headed to Hillcrest.
Upon arriving at the hospital, they checked me into the Labor & Delivery and we got settled in our room. It turned out that although my water broke, I was only 1 cm dilated, so we had a long path ahead of us to meet Little B. Dr Peskin called into my room and spoke with my nurse, Mike & me to explain what they were planning to do to progress my labor. Keep in mind that Little B was very high up due to the counter-productive contractions I'd been having for days-- so I wasn't expecting to be able to deliver without some sort of intervention. My plans prior to this week was to put off an epidural until I was in a transitionary period or in full active labor(possibly even avoid one). But when Dr Peskin broke the news to me about Little B being so high and away from the birth canal, I knew there was a huge liklihood that these plans were about to be thrown out the window.
Because my water had broken, standard protocol is to have the baby delivered within 24 hours to avoid possible infection. So, we skipped the Cervidil (which is a slower, less aggressive medicine to make labor progress)and went straight to Pitocin (which rapidly increases contractions in intensity and frequency). They were already monitoring Little B's heartbeat and everything appeared normal, so they started the Pitocin through my IV and waited for it to take effect. Usually, the moment you begin Pitocin, its strongly recommended that you also begin an epidural, because of the hastened contractions and the pain that accompanies them. They planned to do this once it was established that Little B's heart rate handled the enhanced Pitocin-induced contractions well. A little tiny dip when an intense contraction occurs is considered normal and not stressful to the baby. So, the monitoring began-- as did the expected intense pain they told me would occur with each contraction. I had a few choice words for the Pitocin....lets just say that I didn't feel like me and the drug were exactly on the same team.
Within 30 minutes of being on the Pitocin drip, my nurse came in to break some news that we weren't expecting to hear. She was monitoring LIttle B's heart rate during my new, mac-daddy contractions and didn't like what she saw. So, Marti, our nurse, called Dr Peskin and he told her he was coming in and to get the OR reserved as soon as possible. Little B wasn't reacting well at all to the contractions....with his heartrate dropping significantly every time I had one. It would go back to its normal range after, which was a good sign, but the dip was to severe, especially since they expected my labor to last about 20 hours even with the Pitocin. Marti came in and told us about her conversation with our doctor. From my previous discussions with him, I knew that him deciding to do a C-Section wasn't exactly a suggestion, but rather a medical neccessity. All along, he told me that he really wanted to avoid a C-Section unless absolutely neccessary because it would be a complicated procedure because of the surgery I had to remove the ovarian tumors. So, for him to say that it was time to operate, I knew he must have had really good reason to do so. This is where totally trusting a very competent doctor who truly understands your individual scenario is so important.
Dr Peskin arrived and visited us to explain how he hoped the procedure would go. He referenced the heart rate dipping and said that he didn't like seeing this so early on in the labor process, especially so early on in what was expected to be a long one. He pointed out that the dips currently didn't appear to be causing any trouble to Jack, but over a long period of time, had the potential to do so. This is why he felt doing a C-section early on was the best possible approach. Even though they stopped the Pitocin drip, I was still getting insane contractions...but we were going to hold of on any pain medication so that I could be a spinal as soon as the OB/GYN OR was available. So, we powered through them.
Mike was great. He paced around the room watching the monitors and helping me get through the pain. Outside of my room, he spoke with the doctors, unbeknownst to me, and they told him that they did expect the C-Section to take about 90 minutes as opposed to the regular 40-50 minutes. Although they were planning on beginning with a spinal, they were going to make it a very high spinal (up to about my neck) and weren't ruling out that they may need to put me under general anestesia if the scar tissue from my previous surgery was extreme--and they somewhat expected it to be. They explained how significant Little B's heart rate drops were and that the dips were increasing, so we'd be operating as soon as possible-- in about an hour. They weren't overly concerned for the baby, but did elude to the fact that the procedure could be rough on me. They wanted to prepare him with all the possible scernarios, so that he could be calm for me in the OR should any of them occur. Even knowing all of this, he kept a smile on his face and was calm enough for the two of us. I'm not sure exactly what my disposition was-- I was excited, anxious, a little surprised that an emergency C-Section was now a reality, and trying to relax (which I didn't do well) and breathe through the pain. Most of all, I was trying to be brave....while visions of a pain-relieving spinal danced through my head.
I was taken to the OR and given the spinal. I've heard horror stories about getting the injection, but compared to the painful contractions I was having, it wasn't bad at all. The anestesiologists did a great job, as did Marti. We all kept talking throughout the insertion of the needle and meds. The next thing I knew, I was being carefully laid on the operating table and couldn't feel anything below my neck. They created what is called a "sterile wall" around me...and then it seemed like an army of medical professionals came in. Nurses, residents to assist Dr Peskin, the NICU Pediatrics team...perhaps a couple of others...all in all there were about 15 people in the OR. Then, Mike was brought in. He sat by my face to the right of me and we started talking as they started to operate.
Mike came up with a great distraction for me-- we played the "famous person name game," where you have to come up with the name of a famous person who's first name begins with the first letter of the last name of the previous person named. Its mindless, but distracting. Ironically, all of my responses in the beginning were sports figures...go figure! Early on in the procedure, Dr Peskin talked over the sterile curtain and said "Good news, we were able to cut through the middle of your previous incision and the scar tissue is much better than I could have ever anticiapted. We're going to be able to work with the lower portion of the incision and not have to cut as high as we thought we'd have to." Phew. Back to the name game so I didn't have to imagine any visuals of what was going on behind the big blue curtain.
Fifteen minutes later, the doctor called over to Mike and told him to stand up and get ready...so he did. And then I heard the cutest wail of a tiny, but hearty cry. It was Litle B, and Little B was a boy! The look on Mike's face was an extreme expression of pride and joy (mixed in with a bit of relief) that I've never seen. He, like I, was glowing with a huge smile. I felt a couple of happy tears run down my face. I was so glad that the little guy was healthy, which was confirmed by the NICU team. They called Mike over to the infant warmer, and I watched as he cut the umbilical cord. Then, they handed him this very special delivery-- then one of the nurses snapped our first family photo:
Amazing. That's the only way I can describe it. Little B, named Jack Ernest Foley, was born at 11:54 on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008. He was 21 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 12 oz....and is as cute as can be. Just like that, we were parents, and our long road to starting a family had commenced in the happiest of destinations.
The NICU team evaluated Jack and took him off to the normal nursery, as all of his vitals looked great. His Apgar test result was a 9 out of 10. Turns out that the reason Jack's heart rate was dropping so significantly was because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. The C-section was a very smart call, allowing Jack to be delivered in the safest way possible. Nothing else mattered. I didn't care one bit about having to have the surgery-- all we thought about was this new little man in our world.
Some really cool things about Jack's birth:
1) He was born on his paternal grandfather's birthday...which is so neat considering he is the first grandchild born on Mike's side of the family. We had already decided months ago if Little B was a boy, his that his middle name would be Ernest, in honor of Mike's grandfather. So, how fitting to share a birthday with him as well! Mike's grandfather was an amazing man, and quite a role model, so we are thrilled to be able to honor him in this way.
2) He shares being born on the 23rd of the month with his two cousins on my side of the family. Calvin was born on January 23rd and Cameron was born on March 23rd. What a coincidence!
We're just as happy as can be...Thanksgiving will have an even more special meaning this year! Welcome Jack!
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